During the Fifties and Sixties,tensions between the Soviet Union andthe UScould not have been higher, as the pair tussled for ultimate supremacy both on the ground and in space.However, Ministry of Defence papers show how the RAF played a vital role in preventing the Soviets from considering launching a nuclear attack. Dated between1986 and 1990, the documents discuss a top secret V-force comprised of strategic nuclear bombers that could reach the USSR in minutes, stealthily avoiding detection and anti-air weapons by flying low.

The papers detail: In 1957 the V-force provided the UK with the ability to deliver nuclear strikes deep into the Soviet Union.

A Canberra (bomber jet) force with US warheads allowed for sub-strategic NATO options.

The demise of the Vulcan bomber and Canberra led to the transfer of this sub-strategic role to the F4 Phantoms inRAFGand Buccaneers in UK and RAFG.

When it became clear that theSoviet Union'ssurface-to-air missiles,like theS-75 Dvina, could bring down high-flying aircraft, the V bomber force was key for practising low-level attack methods.

They were capable of dropping both nuclear and conventional weapons, supported by a complexanalogue computersystem known as theNavigation and Bombing Systemthat allowed accurate bombing even over very long ranges.

Eventually, this technologywas rolled outto other NATO states.

The papers explained:In 1969, Polaris assumed the V-force responsibility.

Subsequently, three Phantoms (US Navy fighters) squadrons handed over to four Jaguar (French attack aircraft) squadrons.

The Buccaneers continued in the UK and in RAFG.

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Eventually, Jaguars and Buccaneers handed over to seven Tornado squadrons and those Buccaneers in UK assigned to Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SAUCER) handed over to two Tornado squadrons and 16 other aircraft of the TWCU at Honington.

The Vulcan is also well-remembered for its conventionalBlack Buck bombing raidsduring the 1982Falklands War, to support the change in mission, a tanker aircraft version was also made.

However, the use of all V bombers as weapons platforms, nuclear or conventional, ended after the Falklands.

The Cold War did not thoughas tensions continued foranother nine years until the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1991, after a change in Soviet mindset was implemented underMikhail Gorbachev.

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However,the eighth and last leader revealed in 2006 his real thoughts on what caused the fall of communismin Eastern Europe.

He said: The nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl, even more than my launch ofPerestroika, was perhaps the real cause of the collapse of the Soviet Union five years later.

The Chernobyl disaster was a devastating nuclear accident that occurred at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant near the city of Pripyat, Ukraine, on April 25, 1986.

It is considered the worst nuclear disaster in history and is one of only two nuclear energy disasters rated at seven the maximum severity on theInternational Nuclear Event Scale, the other being the 2011Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disasterin Japan.

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World War 3: Top secret RAF mission that saved world from nuclear attack revealed - Express.co.uk